College faculty to vote on ‘final’ offer

The college’s bargaining team has just issued a press release in which they state that they have asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) to begin preparations for a ‘final’ offer vote. A date for the vote will be set by the OLRB, but the colleges have asked that the Board expedite the process to ensure that faculty have an opportunity to vote on the offer before OPSEU’s strike date of February 11th.

Also, the colleges have rejected the Unions proposal of going to binding arbitration. Dr. Donovan, chair of the bargaining team said, “binding arbitration is not the answer. We believe the right approach is to allow the faculty an opportunity to vote on this offer, not to bypass them by giving the responsibility to a third party.”

Update…
OPSEU has issued a press release encouraging their members to vote NO to the ‘final’ offer by the colleges. And has stated that they are prepared to move their strike deadline so that members can vote as long as the vote can be arranged on or before February 12th.

Update…
The Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) has set February 10th, 2010 as the date for all full-time academic staff to vote on the college’s ‘final’ offer.

Update…
OPSEU has just announced that they are moving their strike deadline to February 17th, 2010.

Bargaining Overview

Under the new Colleges Collective Bargaining Act (CCBA), 2008 bargaining between the College Compensation and Appointments Council (the Council) and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) would begin 90 days prior to the end of a collective agreement.

With the full-time academic staff’s (full-time teachers, Counsellors, Librarians and partial load teachers) collective agreement expiring on August 31, 2009, bargaining began in June of 2009.  Both sides met throughout the summer in an effort to reach a new agreement, but unfortunately, both sides could not find enough common ground on the major issues of a new agreement (e.g. financial and workload).  After a mandated month long recess during September, by the Ministry of Labour appointed conciliator, both sides went back to the table in October with the hope of reaching a new deal.

SML (Strike My Life)

Do you have something to say about the potential strike at Ontario’s colleges?  If so, tweet your thoughts, comments, frustrations, etc. to @strikemylife.